All Things VICEhttps://allthingsvice.com
Your intelligent guide to the seedier sideSun, 20 May 2018 16:24:11 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://s0.wp.com/i/buttonw-com.pngAll Things VICEhttps://allthingsvice.com
How Telstra stole my identityhttps://allthingsvice.com/2018/05/03/how-telstra-stole-my-identity/
https://allthingsvice.com/2018/05/03/how-telstra-stole-my-identity/#respondThu, 03 May 2018 03:00:00 +0000http://allthingsvice.com/?p=1001You can’t have a burner phone without a prepaid SIM, so I guess it’s only fitting that Telstra is using my Fake ID to illustrate their identity requirements

There is a long history of people having their photos nicked without attribution and payment by large corporations. It is the reason the very excellent ‘for exposure’ exists. I’ve never actually had a photo deemed steal-worthy til now, as alerted to me by an AllThingsVice reader.

Terry Davis was recently filling out an application for a prepaid Sim card “for a friend” when he thought something looked oddly familiar.

Yep, our biggest Telco, Telstra, is using one of my photos without permission. In my early days of dark web blogging, a Fake ID vendor on Silk Road who was having trouble convincing people of the quality of his product sent a freebie to the only out and proud (i.e. non-anonymous) member of the site for critique. I used my photo (in fact, I used my Age byline photo) but the name and address of the Mother of Dragons:

What can we make of Telstra using my fake ID as their sample ID to instruct people signing up for prepaid phone plans? Is this a tacit wink-and-a-nod by the telco: ‘We know you are signing up for a burner phone; here’s how to use your fake ID’? Was it a bit of a sly troll by a disgruntled employee? Or just a fluke in a Google image search?

And most importantly, how much am I owed in royalties?

Big thanks to eagle-eyed reader Terry Davis, who must have a hell of a memory too

If you’re thinking of signing up for a burner phone, you probably should use a VPN. I use IP Vanish

]]>https://allthingsvice.com/2018/05/03/how-telstra-stole-my-identity/feed/0allthingsviceThe Darkest Webhttps://allthingsvice.com/2018/02/15/the-darkest-web/
https://allthingsvice.com/2018/02/15/the-darkest-web/#commentsThu, 15 Feb 2018 03:20:00 +0000http://allthingsvice.com/?p=989Apologies for the lack of posts for a very long time. I’ve been busy finishing my latest book, and it went on sale on 14 March! So excuse the shameless plug, but you can order:

Darkest Web

Drugs, death and destroyed lives … the inside story of the internet’s evil twin

Hitmen for hire, drugs for sale. Inside the dangerous world that lurks beneath the bright, friendly light of your internet screen

Dark…

A kingpin willing to murder to protect his dark web drug empire. A corrupt government official determined to avoid exposure. The death of a dark web drugs czar in mysterious circumstances in a Bangkok jail cell, just as the author arrives there.

Who is Variety Jones and why have darknet markets ballooned tenfold since authorities shut down the original dark web drugs bazaar, Silk Road? Who are the kingpins willing to sell poisons and weapons, identities and bank accounts, malware and life-ruining services online to anyone with a wallet full of Bitcoin?

Darker…

A death in Minnesota leads detectives into the world of dark web murder-for-hire where hundreds of thousands of dollars in Bitcoin is paid to arrange killings, beatings and rapes. Meanwhile, the owner of the most successful hitman website in history is threatening the journalists who investigate his business with a visit from his operatives – and the author is at the top of his list.

Darkest…

People with the most depraved perversions gather to share their obscene materials in an almost inaccessible corner of the dark web. A video circulates and the pursuit of the monsters responsible for ‘Daisy’s Destruction’ lead detectives into the unimaginable horror of the world of hurtcore.

There’s the world wide web – the internet we all know that connects us via news, email, forums, shopping and social media. Then there’s the dark web – the parallel internet accessed by only a select few. Usually, those it connects wish to remain anonymous and for good reason.

Eileen Ormsby has spent the past five years exploring every corner of the Dark Web. She has shopped on darknet markets, contributed to forums, waited in red rooms and been threatened by hitmen on murder-for-hire sites. On occasions, her dark web activities have poured out into the real world and she has attended trials, met with criminals and the law enforcement who tracked them down, interviewed dark web identities and visited them in prison.

This book will take you into the murkiest depths of the web’s dark underbelly: a place of hitmen for hire, red rooms, hurtcore sites and markets that will sell anything a person is willing to pay for – including another person. The Darkest Web.

Author bio:

Eileen Ormsby is a lawyer, author and freelance journalist based in Melbourne. Her first book, Silk Road was the world’s first in-depth expose of the black markets that operate on the dark web. Her gonzo-style investigations have led her deep into the secretive corners of the dark web where drugs and weapons dealers, hackers, hitmen and worse ply their trade. Many of these dark web interactions turned into real-world relationships, entanglements, hack attempts on her computer and even death threats from the dark web’s most successful hitman network as she researched Darkest Web. She now lives a quiet life off-grid as much as possible.

]]>https://allthingsvice.com/2018/02/15/the-darkest-web/feed/4allthingsviceCoverMurder, they wrote – freelancing for a dark web hitmanhttps://allthingsvice.com/2017/10/13/murder-they-wrote-freelancing-for-a-dark-web-hitman/
https://allthingsvice.com/2017/10/13/murder-they-wrote-freelancing-for-a-dark-web-hitman/#commentsFri, 13 Oct 2017 04:07:44 +0000http://allthingsvice.com/?p=981Dark web murder-for-hire organisation Besa Mafia never paid any of their would-be hitmen for burning cars for them. The only people paid were their army of freelance writers. Here’s what Besa Mafia had them do.

Shilling for the Hitmen

Any freelancer knows that sometimes you have to take some pretty questionable jobs to put dinner on the table. This whole writing gig is not at all lucrative for those of us who are not J.K. Rowling or Stephen King, and in between books and serious investigative journalism (both which pay dismally when converted to hourly rates), we have to take some less-than-rewarding jobs. My low points have included extolling the virtues of pokies (slot machines for US readers) and offering my body up for clinical tests of a new drug (not the fun kind).

What I’ve never done is write for a content mill. The money on offer can barely sustain a modest Bangladeshi lifestyle, let alone buy a smashed avocado breakfast in one of the most expensive countries in the world.

If I had been desperate enough to pick up content mill work, this is the sort of ad I might have responded to:

Any freelancer responding to such an advertisement would start chatting with Yura, owner of Besa Mafia, advance-scammer extraordinaire. Yura, as previously reported, didn’t really want to kill anyone, but needed people to think he did so they would pay him lots of Bitcoin.

Still, he didn’t want them to know they were advertising a murder-for-hire site, so he had a cunning story for those who responded to the ad:

‘I need fiction stories that are one page long and written in the style of testimonial, they are fictional you as writer must imagine that you are a different person each time, and you need to write a story or testimonial about how someone did something bad to you; you wanted to take revenge, and you found some site on deep web named Besa Mafia, you tried them and they did a job well for you, beating up or killing a person. An example of such story is here: https://sites.google.com/site/besamafiastories.

The purpose of these fictional stories is that we are fighting Besa Mafia and want to get their site closed down; we want to shock the public and mass media to put pressure on FBI to close their site down. They provide real beating up and killing services, but their customers don’t publish stories, so media doesn’t bother with them; so we need to stories to shock public and get pressure on fbi to close besa mafia site down.

can you write fictional stories like this? you get paid $5 for each story, one page long, 500 words.. like a fake testimonial meant to shock and appear valid to have them closed down’

Yep, like everyone else on content mills, Yura’s pay rate for freelance article writers was shit. Three articles and three tweets would net a freelancer a cool $35.

Besa Mafia shelled out $10 for this article, then asked for another ten in a similar vein.

“in one story pretend you are women who was raped, in other story pretend you are father and your dauther was raped, in other story, pretend you are woman and your husben beated you and cheated many times, in other story pretend that a lover cheated and stole a large amount of money, etc’

He also hired people to find news stories online of murders that could have been Besa hitmen and had people write comments on such stories when comments were enabled: ‘This looks like a murder by a paid gang member.. Like those who offer services on sites like Besa Mafia on Deep Web, google it to see what I am talking about. Hitmen for hire can do jobs for $5000 these days, it’s the end of the world.. Hope police will close them down.’

When he rebranded as Chechen Mafia, he moved into paying taggers for graffiti ads:

These may well be photoshop, but I’m sure some readers with better knowledge than me will let me know

This might seem like a hell of a lot of work for one person to go to, but the returns were more than worth it. Yura raked in AT LEAST 192 BTC, which at today’s exchange rate is over $US 1 million.

So freelancers, you can respond to shitty jobs on content mills, but it is much more lucrative to open a fake hitman site.

]]>https://allthingsvice.com/2017/10/13/murder-they-wrote-freelancing-for-a-dark-web-hitman/feed/6allthingsviceReal Folk of the Dark Webhttps://allthingsvice.com/2017/09/12/real-folk-of-the-dark-web/
https://allthingsvice.com/2017/09/12/real-folk-of-the-dark-web/#commentsTue, 12 Sep 2017 02:07:37 +0000http://allthingsvice.com/?p=931A couple of weeks ago I got back from an 8-week trip around the globe to meet with all manner of dark web types in preparation for my upcoming book, Darkest Web. Here’s a taster of what went down with each.

THAILAND

Variety Jones – mentor to Dread Pirate Roberts

Well, at this point, still “alleged” Variety Jones, but most certainly Plural of Mongoose, aka the Megabyte Megalomaniac, aka Roger Thomas Clark.

I last visited Mongoose a few months ago, when he was delighted to welcome me to the visitors’ booth of Klong Prem Remand prison four times for some lovely chats. He invited me back “around August” to talk more book stuff.

This time, however, on my two attempts to see him, I received a response from prison officers: Prisoner not taking visitors

Now, Mongoose had told me that messages like this could mean prisoner has had quota of visitors for the week, prisoner not allowed to see visitors, we could not find prisoner, or possibly prisoner doesn’t want to see you and is too polite to say so.

I met up with the Grugq to talk about the AlphaBay affair and wound up out in the red light district of Bangkok. As he fielded text messages admonishing him for hanging with “the press”, there were undoubtedly opsec failures on both our parts all over the place that night. But Bangkok is a forgiving city.

Still, that’s all I can tell you because next morning’s message was:

UK

LaMoustache – dark web super-sleauth

There was probably nobody on this trip I was more excited to meet than the formidable, incredible LaMoustache, Keeper of the Silk Road Timeline, dark web super-sleuth and researcher extraordinaire.

He did not disappoint. We met for a drink at a funky Hoxton pub, then he came back to the apartment of the friend who was hosting us. When I was unable to keep up with the drinking shenanigans (read: passed out on the couch) LaMoustache took my partner out clubbing and returned him to me just before dawn and very much worse for wear.

Deku-Shrub – head mod of /r/deepweb and head antagonist of Besa Mafia

Deku, aka Pirate London, once had a car torched in his honour by Besa Mafia, the dark web’s most successful ever murder-for-hire outfit. Since then, things became even more dramatic for Deku, but no spoilers. We met in London for a very civilised dinner and drinks, as our long-suffering partners listed to us talk hitmen all night.

Jesse – lead writer on potential series on option of my first book

My first book, Silk Road, was optioned for a TV series a couple of years ago. Since then, there’s been scripts written, meetings with Hollywood network execs and all sorts of author stuff-of-dreams, but I’ve learned things really blow hot and cold in TV-land. It was nice to get to hang out in the oh-so-cool Soho House.

IRELAND

Libertas – Silk Road Lieutenant

My trip coincided with the Court of Appeal hearing for Gary Davis, alleged to be Silk Road’s Libertas. The USA has been trying to extradite Gary from Ireland since his arrest in December 2013. He has been doing it tough, but this was a good day – a decision on extradition was stayed for at least another few months.

USA

Inigo – Silk Road’s First Mate

Drew Jones, who was arrested the same day as Davis and SSBD (who I met way back when he was released from prison), went for the guilty plea and has been kept in limbo awaiting sentencing ever since. He’s not wearing an ankle bracelet any more and we were able to go out for drinks and dinner.

The people of Cottage Grove

Ahead of the trial of the first ever dark web murder-for-hire case, I spent a week talking to friends of the deceased, law enforcement types, journos, neighbours and lawyers, as well as going to church. This case is subject of a Dateline and likely to spawn a number of movies, mini-series or Law&Order episodes.

Depending on what my publisher thinks of the first draft, Darkest Web is due out early next year.

]]>https://allthingsvice.com/2017/09/12/real-folk-of-the-dark-web/feed/2allthingsviceScreen Shot 2017-09-12 at 11.31.26 amScreen Shot 2017-09-12 at 11.40.31 amScreen Shot 2017-09-12 at 11.45.22 amScreen Shot 2017-09-12 at 11.40.14 amScreen Shot 2017-09-12 at 11.41.24 amScreen Shot 2017-09-12 at 11.29.48 amScreen Shot 2017-09-12 at 11.33.31 amScreen Shot 2017-09-12 at 11.59.52 amDNM Vendors, have your sayhttps://allthingsvice.com/2017/09/01/dnm-vendors-have-your-say/
https://allthingsvice.com/2017/09/01/dnm-vendors-have-your-say/#commentsFri, 01 Sep 2017 02:48:45 +0000http://allthingsvice.com/?p=923Below is a callout to DNM vendors to share their views about DNMs and the perceptions of others about what you do. I know some of the independent researchers involved in this initiative personally, the others by reputation, and they have my full confidence that they will pull out all the stops to maintain confidentiality and integrity of their sources. They are people I admire in the field of drug policy and harm reduction research.

Obviously with everything that’s been going on in the DNMs of late, most would be understandably reticent in coming forward, and certainly if you have any questions about your own opsec abilities you probably should stay away. But if you are a vendor who is truly committed to harm reduction and fighting the War on Drugs, I urge you to look at their previous publications and consider getting in touch with the researchers via the means at the bottom of the callout.

***

Do you sell drugs online?

Are you interested in sharing your views about online drug trading, the darknet community, and what law enforcement and the media are saying about you?

If yes, then we are interested in talking to you!

We are a team of independent ​university researchers conducting anonymised ​interviews with people who sell drugs on the darknet.

We have safeguards in place – that we are happy to have reviewed – to ensure your complete anonymity should you be interested in being interviewed. Our research team has an ​established ​track record of ​researching and ​publishing ​​both online and offline drug trading. Links to our research profiles and previous publications are linked with our names below.

The purpose of the study is to shed some light on how people involved think about the risks, benefits and social impact of online drug trading. At present, much of the public commentary surrounding this issue is sensationalist and reactionary, and we hope to provide some more balanced and informed perspectives regarding the motivations and experiences of people who are actually involved in this line of work.

All interviews are strictly anonymous and conducted using whichever preferred encrypted chat program you prefer from the following: XMPP with OTR or Wickr. We highly suggest using the most secure means as possible and TAILS comes equipped with Pidgin, XMPP and OTR. Should you have another preferred means of communication (e.g. Signal, Telegram, Ricochet) we are happy to use these.

Interview questions will be themed around how you got into online drug trading and how you think about the various risks and rewards associated with this activity. We are also interested in discussing how you perceive the darknet community, the role of the media in reporting on darknet markets, the impact of exit scams and policing operations, as well as the social and political implications of online drug trading.

​Answering any of the questions is totally voluntary and you will have the option to withdraw from the study at any stage. Also, we appreciate that your time is valuable and would like to offer a reciprocity payment of $40 to cover any expenses, payable to either you in BTC or to the charity of your choice.

We look forward to sharing our findings with the community and will make them available upon completion of the study.

Thank you for considering our request, and we hope we can speak with you soon!

You can reach us using the profiles listed below. The profiles and accounts below are only accessed by us through TAILS. Should you wish to use another method than XMPP we can exchange contact information and plan the practical details over forum private messages through The Hub or email. Our public PGP key is found below.

EDIT: I could not for the life of me get WordPress to format the PGP message – please see comment by one of the researchers, Rasmus, below for PGP details

]]>https://allthingsvice.com/2017/09/01/dnm-vendors-have-your-say/feed/1allthingsviceBitcoin_accepted_here_printableSome interesting titbits to come out of the latest Silk Road “rogue agent” allegationshttps://allthingsvice.com/2017/04/23/some-interesting-titbits-to-come-out-of-the-latest-silk-road-rogue-agent-allegations/
https://allthingsvice.com/2017/04/23/some-interesting-titbits-to-come-out-of-the-latest-silk-road-rogue-agent-allegations/#commentsSun, 23 Apr 2017 01:25:04 +0000http://allthingsvice.com/?p=906I was digging through my Silk Road archives when researching parts of my new book, and came up with a couple of little nuggets surrounding the latest “rogue agent” allegations that I don’t think have been reported yet.

Yuhendri Fajri via flickr.com, poorly adulterated

TL;DR:

What we assumed to be a simple Silk Road scam in early 2013 may have been law enforcement intelligence gathering + another Force/Bridges theft

There may be an explanation why Ross Ulbricht didn’t move to Belize after the controlled delivery of fake IDs to him in July 2013

If you’ve ever spoken to me, chances are the three-letter-agencies know about it

Background

Last November Ross Ulbricht’s defence team alleged yet another rogue law enforcement/government officer had been swapping intel for bitcoin whilst Silk Road was running. That person methodically removed all traces of their interactions with Dread Pirate Roberts from the evidence, other than from a stray backup in a nondescript file and copies of correspondence kept in a file on Ulbricht’s computer called le_counter_intel.txt.

The defence is adamant that this agent, who used the aliases “albertpacino” / “alpacino” and “notwonderful” is not either Carl Force or Shaun Bridges, both of whom are serving time for corruption and theft in respect of their roles in the Silk Road case.

“notwonderful” is a reference to the first major piece of intel the agent provided DPR – i.e. that someone calling themselves “Mr Wonderful” was contacting Silk Road staff trying to get them to turn on DPR and Silk Road in return for cash. Mr Wonderful was another HSI agent according to testimony by undercover HSI agent Der-Yeghiayan (who posed as moderator Cirrus on Silk Road for some time).

Here’s what I came up with when looking at things happening on Silk Road at the time.

1. Is it possible that what we thought was a scammer phishing for Bitcoin was actually LE phising for login credentials?

From Ulbricht’s computer file:

Alpacino:Now, there have and continue to be attempts to compromise staff accounts (on the forum and main side) by the normal methods of password guessing, but AFAIK none have been successful. There have been successful instances of cloning lookalike accounts which have all been shut down on your side.

This was interesting, because a few months earlier, March 2013, messages went out to major vendors from users calling themselves SRAdmin, SR Staff and SR Vendor Support offering the opportunity to take part in an invite-only Silk Road 2.0:

Greetings,

Silk Road has decided to move on with a new venture, a new Silk Road. We have listened to sellers feedback from here and the forums and with the amount of buyer scams on the rise we have decided to act. On the 1st of April we will be launching Silk Road 2.0 as a separate site to the main site. This site will be invite only and work on a web of trust method.

As one of our high ranking, trusted sellers we are inviting you to participate and be amongst the few to join. Sellers will be recruited from the main site when we feel they have gained our trust that they are reputable sellers. Buyers will in the first instance be recruited on their seller stats

…

The Site is due to go live on the 31st of March 2013 with an announcement on the forum at the same time, the reason we have kept it quiet so far is that we expect a lot of debate about the site on the forum as until sellers begin to invite their customers the people allowed to join will be limited. We ask that you do not mention it to your customers until this time.

As a trusted vendor the fee for joining with this invite is 2btc (~$100) after the 1st of April the fee will be the same as the main site. Your unique btc address to send the payment to is 17UcDKHtusuSijELtFxqpw2p8dYFvQARuU

Once the payment has been matched and confirmed you will receive the address of the new page with a link to register and build your store. please do not release the address until after 31st March.

Silk Road Admin

The blockchain shows around 35 transactions for 2BTC on 20 March (though I’m confused by the Satoshi Dice transactions afterwards – would LE obfuscate this way?). In the grand scale of Bitcoin scams, $3500 is negligible. Those login credentials, however, could have been a goldmine from any vendors with sloppy OPSEC.

Another rogue LE theft?

A couple of days later a similar scam netted a whopping 800 BTC, when members received a message that looked like it came from “Inigo” (DPR’s first lieutenant) offering an opportunity to “invest” in Silk Road:

SR Staff –

Good morning Silk Road vendors and buyers, my name is Inigo. As some of you will already know I offer customer support here on Silk Road.

…

We are now also ready to offer a very unique opportunity to a lucky few. The chance to invest in the site. I must be very clear and say that this is investment only, you will not own or have a say in any part of the running or management of the site. This can all be verified with DPR’s forum post here http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=138016.0 Or message him here http://silkroadvb5piz3r.onion/messages/send_message/b1e30b5819 Please do not speak about this on the forums yet as we are anticipating a lot of media attention over this and would like to minimize the impact if possible.

We are offering 250 investment shares of 0.1 percent of the income of the site (income excluding running costs & Dread Pirate Roberts share, staff etc.) which currently stands at ~$200’000 per month or $2’400’000 annually Shares will be priced at $500 for a 0.1% share, paid in btc (see below) at Mt. Gox’s weighted average at that time. There is no limit on the amount of shares you can buy, and the amount we will be paying out equates to 25% of the sites income.

…

Payment for your shares need to be paid to the address specified below, these are then tracked internally and after payment for 250 investments has been received the payment address will no longer be valid and payments will not be able to made into it.

Payment address – 1F48CymZsof76oZob8UiCAaz7P4yUdnz7M

If you receive an invalid wallet address error, you are too late.

…

This is strictly first come, first served. As, said before there is no limit on how many one person can buy. Again, this is the chance to be a part of the site and a part of history.

Thank you and good luck

Inigo

SR Staff

Knowing what we know now, it is possible that the first was a genuine LE attempt at taking control of vendor accounts, and the second was a theft by Messrs Force or Bridges.

It’s worth noting at the time that these incidents were covered up by Silk Road administration, with the stolen amounts quietly repaid. I found out about it thanks to a privnote message sent to me from “Whisteblower”:

Eily,

Hope your trip was well. Long time. There’s been a lot of stuff going on in these parts. I’m sure you heard about the investment scammer making nearly 150,000 USD in the last few days by using names such as “SR STAFF” “VENDOR SUPPORT” “SR ADMIN” etc. And the mods have been tight lipped on how that was possible. Even DPR remained hush. Then widhtrawls got delayed yesterday. And today, we have some poor guy saying how he got a cryptic message from the “ADMIN” account.

Scout made some vague BS answer about how he handled it (he has no idea how the person did it either).

What if I were to say my birdies were reporting some very, very serious stuff to me? Stuff that could send this place in a tailspin. And they have proof that they could clone/compromise ANYONE’s account. (They haven’t used it for any bad purposes). And when I say anyone, I mean *anyone*. Human, Admin, or Pirate *cough cough*. And lets say I asked them to prove it, and right infront of my disbelieving eyes, logged into an Admin account and DPR’s account and sent me a message. And they’d be willing to prove that they could do it again. Regards..

If nothing else, it is an interesting little bit of Silk Road history.

2. Was Ulbricht lulled into a false sense of security by alpacino/notwonderful after the CD of his fake IDs?

Because DPR did not keep a record of his side of the correspondence with alpacino, sometimes we have to guess what alpacino is responding to. So some guesswork was required when ascertaining what DPR had said to make alpacino respond like this:

Alpacino:I’m sorry if I said anything that makes you unhappy.. I would not lie to you about anything, I would not gain anything from withholding, rather you’d lose your utility for me and obviously that’s counter to me even reaching out.

Please understand that it’s obviously possible that I’m not privy to EVERYTHING that goes on. I work in a 9-5 environment and I’m nowhere near the field (and I’d never be). If there’s something that you’re 99.9% sure of is in DPR’s profile then you’d know better. If I don’t know about it or have not heard/seen it, then that’s a limitation of what I’m privy too. And I apologize for that sincerely, but I have no control over that.

Earlier in the conversations, alpacino/notwonderful outlined what was in the profile law enforcement had created of DPR (most of which turned out to be wrong). From the response above, it appears DPR must have responded that he was sceptical of the information because there was something he was 99.9% sure would be in the profile.

On July 26 2013, US Homeland Security knocked on the door of an address on 15th Street in San Francisco, California. Earlier that month they had intercepted a package of false identification documents for the US, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom – nine different names but all with a photograph that matched the man who answered the door, who identified himself as Ross Ulbricht. It was billed as a “routine inspection” of inbound mail from Canada at the US-Canada border.

This would have taken place right in the middle of the correspondence with alpacino. DPR would have expected that information to be added to the FBI’s profile of him. Was he comforted by the fact alpacino/notwonderful didn’t seem to be aware of the controlled delivery?

3. I feel like I’m being watched

“I know that Eileen has a publishing deal and is writing a book around SR, and has had extensive dialogue with everyone from buyers to new vendors to old hats. She claims that she has your blessing and at some point will be (or has) interviewing you of sorts,” alpacino/notwonderful wrote to DPR. “Do not put it past them to wiretap journos. If you (for example), interact with people like Chen or Ornsby [sic], assume they can see it. Assume journalists are compromised/breached”.

This could be pure speculation on alpacino’s part, but I’ve always wondered what happened on in January 2015, when all emails between me and two former Silk Road staffers – Scout/Cirrus and Nomad Bloodbath – inexplicably disappeared from my Gmail account.

Scout and Nomad Bloodbath had both been compromised, their accounts taken over by LE, in 2013.

]]>https://allthingsvice.com/2017/04/23/some-interesting-titbits-to-come-out-of-the-latest-silk-road-rogue-agent-allegations/feed/1allthingsviceDark Web’s CrimeBay raising funds for a hit on Trumphttps://allthingsvice.com/2017/02/02/dark-webs-crimebay-raising-funds-for-a-hit-on-trump/
https://allthingsvice.com/2017/02/02/dark-webs-crimebay-raising-funds-for-a-hit-on-trump/#commentsThu, 02 Feb 2017 05:39:08 +0000http://allthingsvice.com/?p=900CrimeBay, the new incarnation of Besa Mafia, has stepped up its marketing with a new attempt to extort money by crowdfunding a hit on the new US President.

“Donald Trump is an extremely difficult target”, the site acknowledges, “however, he is neither a God nor immortal, and Crime Bay enjoys a challenge.”

CrimeBay’s crowdfunding page for the assassination of Trump

However, though there’s bound to be some people who find it tempting to donate to the pot, anyone doing so will lose their bitcoin. If you can get past the CAPTCHA on the site that is – it sucks.

]]>https://allthingsvice.com/2017/02/02/dark-webs-crimebay-raising-funds-for-a-hit-on-trump/feed/4allthingsviceCrimeBay's crowdfunding page for the assassination of TrumpDark Web LSD stalwarts jesusofrave in their own wordshttps://allthingsvice.com/2016/11/09/dark-web-lsd-stalwarts-jesusofrave-in-their-own-words/
https://allthingsvice.com/2016/11/09/dark-web-lsd-stalwarts-jesusofrave-in-their-own-words/#commentsTue, 08 Nov 2016 21:30:30 +0000http://allthingsvice.com/?p=839Today’s blog is a guest post by jesusofrave. Jesusofrave is one of the most enduring brand names of the darknet markets since the early days of the original Silk Road when they sold direct to users.

Fast forward 4 years, and jesusofrave is a wholesale supplier of MDMA and LSD, operating across all major darknet markets, as well as supplying direct through their own dark web site, The Church. They have some major plans for the near future, including providing significant assistance and donations to organizations using psychedelics in therapy.

Here they tell how they got to where they are.

***

A Short History of Nearly Everything (jesusofrave)

Anyone with more than a passing interest in the darknet is bound to be familiar with the name “jesusofrave.” Even if we’ve never dealt with them personally, we may associate the name with longevity, or professionalism, or simply nostalgia for the early days of darknet markets.

Over their careers, darknet vendors tend to befall at least one of a number of shortcomings, whether it be inadequate stealth or operational security; underestimating the necessary time and resource commitments; poor, unpleasant, dishonest, or infrequent communication; disdain for the community; lack of respect for anonymity; inconsistent or misrepresented offerings; or even outright theft and fraud. jesusofrave sticks out among this landscape for their distinct lack of complaints from their clientele. Very few vendors indeed can claim such a reputation and those who have sustained a similar level of satisfaction and community approval over such a length of time in this uncertain territory are even fewer.

The Early Church and the Silk Road

In her book Silk Road, Eileen Ormsby presents details from an interview with an alleged representative of jesusofrave going by the name “Joseph.” Joseph recounts how in the pre-Silk Road days he and a small group of associates sold what Ormsby refers to as “party drugs,” mainly LSD and MDMA, to acquaintances, and developed a reputation for quality, professionalism, and honesty but found that dealing face to face tended to complicate social relationships. Joseph is said to have heard of the Silk Road initially through the infamous Gawker piece. Intrigued by further media mentions over the ensuing year, Joseph gathered together some trusted friends who set to the task of doing the necessary research and building the infrastructure required to set up shop on the Silk Road, which they did in late September 2012.

At this point we can leave Joseph and Eileen Ormsby as much of the story is a matter of public record. jesusofrave introduced themselves as a UK-based vendor offering a wealth of free samples of LSD and varying sized orders of LSD blotter and ecstasy pills. The free samples returned glowing reviews from the receivers, and more varieties of LSD and MDMA followed, along with cannabis and, soon, ketamine.

From the beginning, jesusofrave was active on the Silk Road forums, engaging with customers in their vendor thread, developing a rapport with the community, and generally functioning as a benevolent and sensible presence. The early weeks also marked the appearance of the offering that came to be most closely associated with jesusofrave: the “Christ” crystal, later referred to as “The Original Christ” (TOC; “Tears of Christ” in liquid form), described as white fluff from Switzerland of 95 percent purity or better. jesusofrave soon earned the approval of the original LSD Avengers who were notable for promoting systematic testing with independent labs to verify LSD content of Silk Road vendors’ offerings, provoking a marked increase in the standard of quality and accuracy of dosage information among Silk Road LSD vendors. By this time jesusofrave’s good name was being brought up alongside the most highly regarded Silk Road vendors throughout the forums.

Business continued as usual over the following months, with the eventual addition of DMT, 2C-B, and dextroamphetamine. In early 2013 jesusofrave took a step that put them in a class of their own by listing various vending consultation packages, offering to share the methods and mindset that had already made them one of the all time most highly regarded Silk Road vendors in under three months.

By early summer 2013 the demands of vending on the small jesusofrave team began to exceed their capabilities, and rather than overextend themselves beyond the point of being able to offer their same high standard of service, they elected to step back, reevaluate, and reconfigure, removing listings for the time being with the intent to return periodically for limited sales of LSD rather than the previous full-time operation listing a wide variety of materials. They did reappear briefly near the end of September but the triumph of the messiah’s return was to be undermined with the October 2 Federal Bureau of Investigation seizure of Silk Road and arrest of Ross Ulbricht, the alleged operator of the hidden marketplace. jesusofrave moved quickly to establish alternate platforms of communication and contact buyers affected by the seizure. The immediate result was the unrecoverable loss of all buyer and vendor funds remaining in Silk Road wallets. The auspicious first chapter in the story of darknet markets and jesusofrave had come to an abrupt close; if the story were to continue the protagonists would have to seek a new paradigm.

Post-SR, the Majestic Garden, and the Move to Direct Dealing

In the wake of the Silk Road seizure and arrests a number of successor markets arose to fill the void, and jesusofrave established a presence on the most prominent among them, including Silk Road 2 (the most initially visible), Agora, and Evolution. Near the end of 2013 a group considering themselves the successors to the original Silk Road LSD Avengers established the Majestic Garden, an informational platform for discussion of darknet vendors’ offerings and contact information, with discussion limited to cannabis and psychedelics having a strong history of relative safety. The atmosphere of community engagement and positivity was the exact sort of place for the jesusofrave team to thrive, and so they did.

During their Silk Road career jesusofrave generally offered listings in personal use amounts, 100-dose units at most. In the interest of limiting their workload to maintain satisfactory levels of security and customer service, the team moved increasingly to bulk offerings and narrowed the variety of their listings in the post-Silk Road days. Near the end of the Silk Road days LSD vendors increasingly began to offer raw LSD crystal, and jesusofrave soon followed, offering quantities up to a gram. By 2015 jesusofrave had moved to offering raw crystal exclusively. This time period also found jesusofrave abandoning branding their offerings with any biased descriptors, which they found to color resulting experiences unduly, initially simply describing the material’s appearance and eventually opting for simple alphanumeric identifiers and approximate purity levels. Once vendors like HouseofSpirit showed the potential of having multiple varieties of LSD crystal on offer at once, jesusofrave moved to meet buyer demand by simultaneously listing the four best of the sixteen varieties of LSD crystal to which they have access, which were branded JoR #1 through #4 and eventually joined by #5, a further purification of #1.

Silk Road 2 was taken down and its operator arrested on its first anniversary as the centerpiece of Operation Onymous, a coordinated takedown of several hidden services by law enforcement agencies cooperating internationally. Months later, Evolution administrators shut down the site and stole all bitcoins in escrow. Vendors increasingly expressed dissatisfaction with the centralized escrow marketplace paradigm, citing the potential for both buyer and vendor to lose money in exit scams and long waits for funds to be released as absentminded buyers neglect to release funds. After the fall of SR2 and especially Evolution, jesusofrave moved to deemphasize marketplace-based purchases and, while maintaining Agora and DHL accounts, kept the Majestic Garden as their main base of communications. In April 2015 jesusofrave announced their price match initiative, whereby they pledged to match any reputable vendor’s LSD price, and consistently made good on the offer, repeatedly lowering prices to match competing offers. Between 2014 and 2016 the price of a gram was cut nearly in half. In August 2015 Agora shut down voluntarily citing security concerns, and the Majestic Garden experienced an influx of new contributors disillusioned by the remaining choices of markets and the concept of centralized escrow markets in general.

About a month into their Silk Road vending career jesusofrave had told the flock gathering in their Silk Road vendor thread of a dream to name twelve “disciples” who would receive special rates with jesusofrave and a monthly gift. It would be more than three years until this dream was finally realized in the form of the Cosmic Clergy. In February 2016, jesusofrave followed a number of ambitious vendors in setting up their own personal hidden service storefront, the Church, and announcing their intention to withdraw their direct presence from the Majestic Garden and operate solely through the Church. They also recruited a dozen respected Gardeners to help facilitate the transition and carry out necessary tasks going forward. The Clergy were to continue the legacy of attentive and good-humored customer relations on the Garden and elsewhere and develop new initiatives of interest to the wider community.

In some ways the story of jesusofrave reflects the wider trajectory of darknet markets and vendors over the past few years, showing how our concerns, preoccupations, and expectations have changed as a community. Before the advent of jesusofrave and the LSD Avengers “Does anyone know where I can get legit LSD?” was a common refrain on the Silk Road forums, and a few short years later one finds such a wealth of legitimate options that nearly every level of buyer and every variety of taste can find satisfaction in the range of choices, at prices low enough to rival the days of Pickard’s major production. As times change and jesusofrave withdraws their public presence to focus on their independent venture, the Cosmic Clergy works to provide continuity and help the organization remain the stable constant in the choppy waters of the darknet that they have long been. jesusofrave continues to approach their mission with open hearts and minds, a spirit of abundance, and a recognition of the need for constant innovation. The story is far from over, and since we can never predict where it will lead us, only one option remains: rave on!

This post originally appeared in The Church Newsletter. Reproduced with the permission of the authors.

When surfing privately, don’t forget to use a VPN, like our affiliate IPVanish

A couple of people have asked me about the book I mentioned in my last post. I recently threw in my nice, steady, well-paying but ultimately creatively unfulfilling tech-writing job. So here’s all the things I have in the pipeline that I’m finally getting around to.

This lot should keep me chained to the keyboard for a while

Another non-fiction book

First, I’m working on a proposal for my agent for a second non-fiction book, Darkest Web, which goes behind the scenes into several different aspects of the dark web that I’ve researched and/or been involved with in-depth. Hopefully that will find a home with a traditional publisher.

The problem with writing serious non-fiction stuff is lawyers. Lawyers legalled me out of about 20,000 words of Silk Road and I had to scramble to fill the gap. Other lawyers stopped part of Darkest Web before it even got properly committed to the page. Which leads me to…

The Dark Web diaries

You know what lawyers don’t care so much about? Fiction. So I’ve started writing a series of thriller novels, tentatively called the Dark Web Diaries. It’s possible I might slip some true stuff in there, but you’ll have to guess which bits they are. The most important thing is hopefully they’ll be a bloody great read. Watch this space for when they’ll be available to download – Bitcoin accepted of course!

TV series

As some know, Silk Road was optioned for a TV series a while ago by Ambience Entertainment and I’ve been doing a bit of work with them. I can’t say much but OMFG what I’ve seen so far – all the first season and an outline of follow-up seasons – is AWESOME. Some super-talented script developers and screenwriters are working on it. Again, watch this space for news.

Freelance journalism

Finally, I’m continuing with the bill-paying stuff of writing articles for mainstream and niche/tech media, as well as ghost writing, blogging and B2B/B2C and branded content. I’m mostly keeping the focus on cybercrime, Bitcoin, drug reform and tech security, but the thing I like about freelancing is it leads me into all sorts of interesting places.

Hopefully my freed-up time will see advances on all of these fronts. Letting you know about it will keep me accountable.

]]>https://allthingsvice.com/2016/10/06/what-ozfreelancer-did-next/feed/8allthingsviceThis lot should keep me chained to the keyboard for a whileSo what’s been happening on the Dark Web?https://allthingsvice.com/2016/09/27/so-whats-been-happening-on-the-dark-web/
https://allthingsvice.com/2016/09/27/so-whats-been-happening-on-the-dark-web/#commentsTue, 27 Sep 2016 09:45:57 +0000http://allthingsvice.com/?p=802The problem with writing a new book is that you save all the good stuff for the book and that leaves you with nothing for the blog. So in desperation, I’ve been clicking on random links from Onion crawlers to see if there’s anything new, relevant and/or even vaguely interesting happening in the deep dark web.

Mr Robot Spoilers – going cheap on the Dark Web

Here’s a glimpse of where that little experiment took me.

Get in quick for the October 1 Dark Red Room Show

Yes, for those who missed out on their September 17th and September 24th show, you have another chance! One reviewer of an earlier show give it 5 Stars! (Though you have to wonder if they exaggerated because they admitted they get a discount for the next show for the good review). That’s much better than the review I gave the ISIS Red Room (not enough bacon).

Hmmm… this “once-in-a-lifetime experience” is onto it’s third show

But if you missed it and are convinced by the glowing review (“the video was very high resolution and didn’t buffer . . . I noticed there was plenty of evidence to reassure the viewer that it was live and notpre-recorded“)the next episode of torture, murder and a gynaecologist wielding power tools (running time 45 mins unless subject expires sooner) is scheduled for October 1.

Slight catch – they want half a Bitcoin up front to watch the action. But they get that you might not be flush with the old cryptocurrency, so they are willing to take “any reasonable amount” and let you watch a pro rata amount of the action.

You can’t ask for better terms than that. Jump on this bargain before its sold out.

Can’t keep a good hitman down

Dear old Yura, admin of Besa Mafia, was probably confused as hell when he woke up one morning to find himself locked out of his site, which was redirecting to infodealer.org and sporting a nice new graphic:

Bye-bye Besa

But as we discovered after the hack, Yura has quite the energy and now a new site has appeared sporting the same quirks in English-as-a-second-language and flamboyant promises to get rid of that thorn in your side. This time, instead of the Albanian mafia, it’s being touted as a “private military company”. Oh he’s so sneaky, that Yura!

Hello Mamba!

His list of services is pure poetry and include killing people (with or without bodyguards, all the way up to a Big Boss “with many bodyguards”), kidnapping, stealth work (I particularly like “kill someone and blame another”), Heavy Work (which includes “exterminate an armed band” – won’t somebody think of the Tuba players?) and injure common or important people (but not a Big Boss – it’s kill him or nothing).

I have to give him his due, he is persistent and it is nice to see he has expanded his services.

Become a US Citizen

Another one you’ll have to get in quick for is SOL’s Official Citizenship. These are genuine documents, they are NOT FAKED and have even been sold to a big political adviser dude. But they are limited to just six Citizenships per month! BETTER CALL SOL to have that sweet sweet Green Card in no time.

Better Call SOL

Templar Knights

Templar Knights is just another market for cloned credit cards, paypal accounts and western union accounts, but it has a really cool design

The First Rule of Drug Club is…

Can’t tell you

Onion Identity Services

There’s nothing particularly special about Onion Identity Services, I just love how they put Canadian passports in the bargain bin with Lithuania.

Got a hot stock tip?

Someone’s trying to get an Insider Trading forum going. I know this was an oft-requested service on the darknet markets, but I very much doubt it is getting much use. It’s one of those things that’s in there with the fixed matches sites – why would anyone with the juicy info share it with random dark web strangers?

In any event, to gain entry, you have to have a stock tip on a public company that’s not publicly known (you know, like inside information) so if anybody has one, please let me know and I will tell internet strangers about it to get into the cool club,

Chat with Strangers

Chat with Strangers is like a dark web chatroulette. Some very creepy people want to chat anonymously but mostly it is just a whole lot of:

“sup”
“not much, you?”
“same”
” . . . ”
” . . . ”click Next

For that special couple

I amused myself with imagining what sort of things might be on the Dark Registry. Maybe the bride-to-be is after a shrunken head, or the groomsman might have a penchant for a new sex slave or 5 minutes as Director in a red room. There could also be the option to donate towards the kidney fund – raise enough and somebody’s going to wake up in a bathtub of ice, but at least Great Aunt Agatha will make it to the wedding.

Sign in and go choose a gift for the Soylent Cake Wedding, the Hitmen & Drugz wedding or the Hack the Planet Wedding.

Eye bleach stuff

Yeah, it was there. No, I’m not gonna blog about it today. Yeah I wish I never found out what that acronym stood for.

***

Hope you enjoyed this little tour through that wild and wacky dark web. Let me know if you find any interesting sites in the comments

]]>https://allthingsvice.com/2016/09/27/so-whats-been-happening-on-the-dark-web/feed/5allthingsviceMr Robot Spoilers - going cheap on the Dark Webdark-red-room-1Bye-bye BesaHello Mamba!dark-mamba-menuBetter Call SOLYep, you may well get Can't tell youpassport-costsstock-insiderChatroulette for the dark webdark-registry